Gung Hai Fat Choy! 3 Ways to Set Your Business on Fire This Year

Gung Hai Fat Choy!

February 10 marked the Chinese New Year, the Year of the Water Snake. Although snakes have a bad reputation in most western cultures, in the Chinese system they are harbingers of good luck. “A person who has a snake lviing under his house will never lack for food,” says the tradition.

2013 will be a good year for business, careers, and wealth-building. As a snake sheds its skin and is reborn, this year will mark a turning point of rejuvenation and renewal.

Here’s to prosperity and good fortune for you and your business throughout the coming year!

3 Ways to Set your Business on Fire

One of the best ways to increase your business is by word of mouth. But how do you get people talking about you in a way that creates new prospects, new customers, new business?

You can’t depend totally on existing customers, though, especially if your business is small or just getting started. Geoffrey James builds on Willoby’s ideas with an article on Inc.com: How to Build a Network of Contacts. Not just advice to “go out and network,” James suggests groups of people who will actively refer your business to others, as well as ways to reach out and ask for their help.

And one last – unexpected – source for help to grow your business: How about your competitors? Andreea Ayers of LaunchGrowJoy.com advises several methods in How to use competitors to grow your business. The steps she outlines are smple, effective, and best of all, can be automated to bring you information on ways you may not be considering to serve your customers.

5 WordPress Security Threats You Probably Didn’t Know About

WordPress now powers about one in four websites on the Internet — more than 61 million at last count. That means that WordPress-powered sites now present a big target for hackers. Keeping your site secure starts with making certain that your WordPress core files, plugins, and themes are all up to date, and removing any plugins or themes that are not being used.